Using VBA to parse text in an MS Word document

Question

I was hoping someone could help with a MS Word Macro.

Basically, I have a MS Word document which lists out several text files and specific pages of interest in each file.

The file format is similar to:

textdocument1.txt              P. 6, 12 - issue1
textdocument2.txt              P. 5 - issue1
                               P. 13, 17 - issue3
textdocument3.txt              P. 10

I want to read each line into my Macro as a string.

Then traverse through it to identify the file name. With the file name, I can then open the file, go to the page number, and copy the data I need.

But I'm stuck at step 1, how do I capture the line into a string in an MS Word Macro?

Any help will be appreciated.

James Eichele · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-16 17:02:15Z

6

The following code should get you started:

Public Sub ParseLines()
    Dim singleLine As Paragraph
    Dim lineText As String

    For Each singleLine In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
        lineText = singleLine.Range.Text

        '// parse the text here...

    Next singleLine
End Sub

I found the basic algorithm in this article.

answered Apr 16, 2009 at 17:02

James Eichele

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1 Comment

Anonymous Type Over a year ago

This will break the document up into paragraphs. If you want sentences do this per line (i.e. sentence) check my answer below.

Tomalak · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-16 17:00:06Z

3

If your word document lists all the text files like this:

<name>{tab}<page ref>{newline}
<name>{tab}<page ref>{newline}
<name>{tab}<page ref>{newline}

Then all the lines are available in the Paragraphs collection. You can loop through that with a simple For Each loop:

Dim p As Paragraph

For Each p In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
  Debug.Print p.Range.Text
Next p

answered Apr 16, 2009 at 17:00

Tomalak

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2 Comments

PhilHibbs Over a year ago

For Each messes up if you make changes to the object, it can get stuck on the same element for ever, I had to use an index variable.

Tomalak Over a year ago

Very true, if you alter the collection you iterate over (deleting or adding new paragraphs) then weird things will happen. Using a indexed loop might fail in this case as well.

Anonymous Type · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-23 02:00:13Z

2

per line

Public Sub ParseDoc()

    Dim doc As Document
    Set doc = ActiveDocument
    Dim paras As Paragraphs
    Set paras = doc.Paragraphs
    Dim para As Paragraph
    Dim sents As Sentences
    Dim sent As Range
    For Each para In paras

        Set sents = para.Range.Sentences
        For Each sent In sents
            Debug.Print sent.Text
        Next

    Next

End Sub

answered Aug 23, 2010 at 2:00

Anonymous Type

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Comments

abdullah · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-13 14:22:36Z

0

if text is in other contains special character or is in another language the above code will not work this was the solution i came up with on one of task i performed

    Dim para As Paragraph
    Dim sentence() As String
    For Each para In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
          sentence() = Split(para.Range.Text, Chr(11))
            For i = 0 To UBound(sentence)
                  Msgbox(sentence(i))
            next i
    next

answered Dec 13, 2020 at 14:22

abdullah

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